1981 GS450E Rebuild

[davidduarte]

you're so close, I can almost feel the throbbing of that twin! Can't wait! You've gotta get some video so we can see and hear it roar to life again!

[pete]

you're so close, I can almost feel the throbbing of that twin! Can't wait! You've gotta get some video so we can see and hear it roar to life again!

I wondered where you were going with "the throbbing of that twin" for a minute there

But yes, so close I can feel it and I keep remembering how it used to sound to fire it up... I'm itching so bad to hear it and feel it again... twist that throttle and hear her spin up...

I need to get the calamine lotion again...

I hope to get some video when I kick it over for the first time, but I'm not sure how easy or hard that will be yet. The camera I'm using now only has a 32MB compact flash card in it (it's old), but the house mate just bought himself a fancy new fandangled camera with all sorts of bells and whistles, and a tripod, case, etc. so that might be a more likely solution if it does video and has a microphone.

[pete]

Good news here, just went through the Clymer looking at the electrical system tests and my signal generator should be good as the coils need to be between 60 and 80 ohms.

Looks like a nice easy way to test for spark in there also once I get some spark plugs and the wiring all hooked up ready to go.

[pete]

Ok, bit of a change of pace tonight, onto the electrics.

Just had an electricity bill arrive that was $200 more than we expected , so can't get my half moons etc. til next pay, oh well.

Anyways, got out the old contact cleaner tonight to get started on the harness etc.



With the parts delay, there's going to be at least an additional week before i can start 'er up, so I figured I might as well get my instruments cleaned up so I can see the oil pressure light, neutral light, etc. and test all the bulbs and things.

So, instruments need somewhat of a clean:



And during disassembly years ago, I discovered that the PO had managed to break the mounting poles for the gear indicator:



That explained why the gear indicator never seemed to sit quite right in the housing.

Also grabbed the harness and electrics out to give them all a wipe over with some kero to get all the crud off that's accumulated over the last few years and also to spray some contact cleaner on all the connectors:



My ignitor has been replaced at some point by one for a 1980 GSX 250 by the looks:



Not sure if my R/R is original, but it came from Gosford:

[pete]

Quick glance shows the harness doesn't appear to have been molested too much, just a couple of places that are questionable.

Connection from battery to main fuse:



Adapting the ignitor to my harness looks to have been done reasonably well:



Instruments out of the plastic enclosure:



Front cover had a bit of a clean:



That's actually in pretty good nick, and I don't see a need to touch it up with the plastic paint or anything which is a real bonus.

Grabbed out the Selley's ready to stick the gear indicator posts back on where they belong:



Cleaned the breaks with some metho and then stuck them back on:



I'll let them cure at least over night.

Cleaned up the mounting hardware:



I'm thinking about doing what others have done and inverting the headlight ears and mounting the instruments underneath the mounts instead of on top to give it a lower profile. I'm seriously thinking about making a fly screen to sit on top of the headlight and that will allow the instruments to be "hidden" somewhat behind it which would be better than the ugly chunky black plastic.

[pete]

Gave the wiring harness a wipe down with kero and a rag and squirted contact cleaner in and on all the connectors:



Same for the instrument wiring and the rear brake light switch:



And same again for the R/R, starter solenoid, and ignitor, and also some shots showing where one of the mounts for the ignitor has been hacksawed off:



I also squirted contact cleaner on all the connectors on the bike already, including coils, stator, signal generator, and gear position indicator.

All in all, I don't think I have a need for making a custom harness at the moment as I'm very surprised at the condition the factory one's in.

The only thing I'd probably still like to do is the coil relay mod and do something a little better with fuses than that dodgy main glass fuse there.

If I'm going to move the ignitor and R/R from the standard location, I'll have to do some adjustments for that too, but that's not a decision for now.

So, hopefully next time I can get the harness at least partially on the bike, and I'm probably going to have to dig up some old photos to determine how it all routed around the frame as I don't think I took any specifically to help me work that out. That should be, well, entertaining...

If the gear indicator mounting posts hold up with the superglue, I should be able to get the instruments mounted as well.

Oh, and Landshark, haven't need to pay attention to wiring colours much just yet, but so far it looks like it's pretty accurate except for the ignitor which comes from the 250.

[davidduarte]

don't know what kind of superglue you're planning to use, but I have my doubts that it will withstand vibration very well. Maybe an epoxy would work better?

[Charlie G]

Pete,

I had a mounting stud break on the speedo and used epoxy to put it right. It's held for a couple of thousand miles so far.


cg

[pete]

Thanks guys, the bottle says "Shockproof" but I guess the proof is in the pudding...

I don't have any epoxy, so I'll leave it as is with the super glue and see how it goes. At least it's relatively easy to get at it again if it breaks...

[pete]

Got a bit more done tonight. Slow going with the clean up of the electrical stuff, and I don't think I have any good pic's of how my harness ran before I removed it. Bugger.

So, cleaned up the bottom part of the instrument enclosure:



Posts for the gear position indicator have glued up well and feel nice and strong. Whether they last with vibration, only time will tell:




Instruments and dash lights back in the enclosure:



Gear position indicator sits well between the repaired posts:




And screwed back in place:




Dash sitting back together:




And screwed down properly:




As long as all the bulbs work, I'm all set. I may still need to invert the instruments and lubricate them yet if the needles turn out to be a bit twitchy or whatever.

[pete]

Sat the instruments back on to compare the standard location:



With mounting underneath the bracket to drop them half an inch or so:



Also pulled out the right controls tonight to get them cleaned up as it'll be handy to have the starter button when I try to fire it up for the first time. They're currently somewhat grungy:



I then completely forgot to take pic's after I'd given the outside a go over with kero and a rag, follwed by WD on the moving bits inside and contact cleaner in there as well. Looked a whole lot better after that and the light switch is much easier to move. Also squirted some contact cleaner in the plugs.

Popped it back on the handlebars:



If you didn't know better, you may be tempted to think it was actually a working motorcycle...

So, next up I'll be posting a new thread in the electrical section begging for pic's of how the wiring harness runs on the 450...

I need to try to print the wiring diagram out on A3 at work tomorrow too as it's just too hard to read on my A4 printout.

I wanted to test continuity with all the switches tonight but the print is so small I can't even read the colours properly in a lot of cases so it's impossible to work out what wires should connect with a closed switch.

[pete]

Almost forgot! Whacked the starter solenoid and ignitor back on the electrics plate for the time being too:




Only problem is I've misplaced the mounting bolts for the plate, so I can't mount it right at the moment. Doesn't matter in the long run as I want to relocate the electrics, but sure would make it easier for the testing.

[pete]

Back at it again tonight, and I printed out the wiring diagram on A3 today to make it a bit easier to follow:



I attempted to run the front half of my wiring harness, and while I did get lots of the connectors joined correctly, I don't think it's routed quite right.

I have a thread going for this here:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=170993

Here it is in its not quite right state:



I also have a bad feeling my starter solenoid is buggered.

Doing a continuity test between the yellow with green wire and the metal body which should be grounded reveals there is continuity there, but I would have expected none.

However, it is a coil in there, so perhaps the impedence of the coil is low enough to register on a continuity test.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? The Clymer doesn't say how to test the solenoid aside from pressing the starter button and see if it clicks or not.



Hopefully I'll be able to work out how to route the harness next time and be able to put some power to the harness and check the bulbs and igniter and things.

Hopefully also my starter solenoid is not buggered as it's over $80 US from Alpha Sports, so I don't even wanna think about how expensive it would be here

[SVSooke]

I've got a few of those off the 750's.If you need one give me a shout.Did a shipping quote for someone else in OZ,was not as bad as I thought it would be.

[pete]

Cool cheers for that!

I had a bit of a search around on here last night and it looks like a common substitution in the US is a lawn mower starter relay, so there's an option I can certainly look for here. Apparently there something like $US10, so they shouldn't be too much dearer here in the hardware stores.

I also realised last night that the spark plug coils measure about 4 ohms, which is pretty close to a short circuit too, so I think I'll measure the starter relay properly instead of using continuity. As long as it doesn't register 0 ohms I'll be happy to test it with the car battery to see if it clicks or not.